Forever
by The Magnificent Kiwi
Summary: This was the one place he hoped he'd never return to. She is looking for a way out. They both have secrets, secrets that the town is turning against them. Will they pull through together or die alone?
1. Prologue

**Forever**

_Prologue_

It was July. Summer. Yet the atmosphere at Brahms church claimed otherwise. A life had been lost; a young, innocent life, cruelly taken by a ruthless disease. The man's name was Zachary Sanderson, or Zach as everyone knew him. He was only 23 years old when he was struck down with an unknown disease. The doctors couldn't do anything for him; there had only been a few cases of it in the world, and no known cure. Zach struggled on for a whole year before slipping into a coma. He was declared virtually brain dead within a month. It was his wife's decision to pull the plug on his life support machine. She did it herself. And now she stood before their friends andtheir family to talk about her beloved husband. The man whos suffering she ended, although she didn't see it that way. To her, as long as he was breathing there was hope. But the doctors thought otherwise, and recommended that he be taken off life support. She had reluctantly agreed. But what to say to those people? What words of comfort could she utter to make everything bearable? None. She had ended her husband's suffering, but she couldn't end the suffering of those people, or of herself.

"Zachary was-" Alexis Sanderson choked on her own words. "My whole life." Her voice was faint and laced with pain and regret. "He loved others without wondering if he should. He didn't judge, he-" The tears streamed down her pale cheeks.Her brown hair stuck to her face, and her emerald green eyes were bloodshot. She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up into the face of her brother, Raymond. He whispered kind words into her ear, but she was too far gone to hear them. He wrapped his arm around her and guided her back to her seat, but instead of sitting down, she took off out of the church, sobbing.

* * *

It wasn't long before the service was over, and Raymond dared to approach his grieving sister again. It was a pitiful sight. She sat in the drivers seat of her 1967 Chevrolet Impala, the window rolled down with her arm hanging out. As he drew closer, Raymond noticed an almost-spent cigarette resting between her index and middle fingers. She had lit it, but not yet taken a drag. She had never touched a cigarette before Zachary's death. Raymond aproached the car and dared to speak to Alexis. 

"He wouldn't want you to be like this," he told her, his voice soothing and calm. At 25, he was only two years older than his sister.

"How would you know what he would have wanted?" She spat.

"Please, Alex. We're trying to help here," Raymond pleaded. Alexis turned to look at him, and it almost broke his heart. All of the pain, the anguish, the hopelessness that she felt showed in her eyes. Her eyes had once been beautiful, they used to be filled with hope and light. She let the cigarette butt fall to the ground and started to wind up her window.

"I love you, Raymond," she sobbed before it closed completely, and began to drive away.

"No!" Her brother screamed, realising what she was about to do. He reached out, as though grabbing ahold of the car would stop her. But it was too late, Alexis was clear of the church, and heading for the lake. She took her eyes off the road, not caring anymore where she was going, and her gaze fell upon one of her wedding photos which she had taped to the radio. Zachary looked so healthy, so handsome. And they were both smiling. Oh, it had been a happy day. Looking up once again, she swerved off the road, hearing someone honk behind her. She figured thatsomeone would follow. She drove straight at the fence, smiling as the wood broke, allowing her car to plunge nose-first over the edge of the ledge and into the lake below.

She didn't know how long she was under, only that she opened a window to allow the water in. She could remember sirens, and screams. But she didn't care. She didn't even fight to remain concious. She just let the darkness take her wherever it wished. Soon, all was dark, and she thought no more.

* * *

_July 17th_

_Four Years later..._

Terry Goldwyn silently paced the small, white room. As a psychiatrist, he met many unusual people, but StanleyMiller was by far the most peculiar individual he had ever spoke to. In all of the timesince they both entered that room, Stanley hadn't spoke a single word. He just sat in fron of the small, plastic table, his strong hands curled slightly on top of it. He wasn't strapped down like the others needed to be,he wasn't violent. His dark blonde hair fell across his eyes, which were closed, as though he were sleeping.

Goldwyn sighed and leaned on the table, looking straight at Stanley.

"Stanley," he spoke, his voice soft yet deep. "You hold the answers, deep within your own mind. But conciously you've forgotten it. That's the way the human mind works; whenever something is too unpleasent, too shameful for us to entertain, we reject it. We erase it from our memories, but the imprint is always there. Nothing is ever really forgotten." For a moment, he saw Stanley flinch.

"She...just vanished. I don't...remember," Stanley muttered. 'At last!' thought Goldwyn, 'progress!"

"Mr Miller, the general opinion is that you are cured," Goldwyn stated. "You haven't had an episode in months, and your delusions have ceased. You are essentially a free man once this session is over.However, the staff at this institution, including myself, believe that it will be beneficial for your well-being if we can at least try and determine what happened to cause your memory loss."

Stanley didn't meet Dr. Goldwyn's gaze. He simply picked at the rolled up sleeves of his strait jacket.

"If I am indeed cured, then why must I wear this thing?" He enquired. Dr. Goldwyn sighed again. Stanley had been brought up from one of the padded cells where he spent his nights. He used to suffer frequent episodes in his sleep which often ended with him hurting himself. Even though these episodeds had ceased along with his delusions, they continued to let him sleep in the cells and the jacket for his own protection.

"Stanley, I think I need to bring to your attention the transcripts of your hypnotherapy sessions." Dr. Goldwyn opened Stanley's file and removed a few sheets of paper. "There is one part in particular which interests me. Ah, here we are. After one particular question is asked, you go turn hysterical. The question is 'Where did you follow your sister to?'. In answer to this question, you replied 'That place. Don't take me back, please! It killed her, it killed her because of the boy. The darkness. It's everywhere! She was sorry, God damn it! She confessed, she repented! Why did you take her?' Then I believe you were asked where this place was, and you started to scream. 'Hell, that place was hell', you said. 'The darkness took everything. It wasn't on earth, it couldn't havebeen, it was a place of nightmares'. Then, you became afraid of your surroundings, started to scream 'It's coming! It's coming' then you spoke the name of a town. Silent Hill."

"I...don't remember," Stanley spoke. "I don't."

"Well, I thought that maybe we could take a little trip through Silent Hill on our way to take you home. You don't have to leave the car, you don't even have to go. I just think it may help you remember what happened. It may even help you remember the details of your sister's murder."

At the mention of his sister, a lone tear slid silently down Stanley's cheek.

"She was skewered, I believe. And you were found on a roadside just outside of Silent Hill, battered and bruised and holding Diana's dead body. A passer by picked you both up and called the police. It was then that the episodes and delusions began, and you lost your memory of the events that transpired." Goldwyn breathed and looked at Stanley. He remeained silent and nodded. "You are a brave man, Stanley. You are 27 years old, yet you have shown courage and wisdom beyond your years. I believe your sister was murdered in Silent Hill. We must go there, and discover the truth."

* * *

Images flashed across her mind, she had no idea where they were from,or even if they were her own memories.The steady beep of a life support machine. Hands all over here, pressing on her chest. Rubber over her mouth, and a finger on her jugular. It was all blurry. Nurses rushing around, crying. Then it was over. Her eyes opened, only to see blue sky. A hand instinctively raised itself infront of her eyes. This was real. The hand was dirty, soiled by mud. Her head felt unusually light, and she sat up. That's when she realised why her legs felt wrong; they were lifted up, into the back of an ambulance. She blinked as she took in her surroundings and got to her feet. Trees. Everywhere, all around her. Then there was the ambulance. It was on its side, and bashed in. Looking up, she saw what must have been a road. The ambulance probably went over the edge, crashing where it now lay. There was a gurney inside, but there was nobody on it. That's when she realised. 'I must have been the patient'. It all came flooding back to her; her husband, the funeral, the lake. She also realised for the first time that she wore a pale green hospital gown and a plastic tag on her wrist. 'Sanderson, A.' it read. It also had a number on it, but she didn't know what it meant. Having regained her composure, Alexis ran to the front of the ambulance, hoping to find that the paramedics were still alive. But they weren't. The windows were such a bloody mess that she dared not open the door. At her feet, next to the front wheels lay the body of another paramedic; they had obviously been in the back with her, and crawled out to the front after the crash, only to die from loss of blood. 

"But why...?" She wondered aloud. Two, maybe three paramedics were dead, one who had been right next to her when the crash took place. So why wasn't she? How had she survived with only minor injuries? Not wanting to dwell too much on the thought, she began to walk into the trees, hoping to find some sign of civilisation soon. The silence was unsettling; there weren't even any birdcalls. The only noise to be heard was the sound of her pounding heart. The broken twigs and pine cones hurt her bare feet as she walked. She was pleased when she eventually came to a dirt path. It sloped uphill and down, and she followed it down, shaking with every step that she took.

* * *

**A/N - Just an idea that I came up with a while ago. It's very loosely based around Silent Hill 2 (no, Alexis didn't murder her husband). There will be at least one character from the games in. And in case you haven't wondered, I took the name Stanley from Stanley Coleman in Silent Hill 3. Rating will probably change.**

**Disclaimer - I don't own Silent Hill, or Wash It All Away by Evanescence (which I took Goldwyn's 'You hold the answers' speech from).**


	2. Alone Again

**Forever**

**Chapter One -_Alone Again_**

Blue sky to forever,  
The green grass blows in the wind, dancing  
It would be much better a sight with you, with me,  
If you hadn't met me, I'd be fine on my own, baby,  
I never felt so lonely, then you came along,

**Akira Yamaoka & Melissa Williamson - You're not here.**

Stanley stood outside of Goldwyn's car. There were two other doctors there as escorts; Dr Constance Gellar and Dr. Matthew Raimes. Dr. Gellar was Stanley's hypnotherapist and Dr. Raimes had supervised his ward. At the moment, the two doctors were trying to figure out why the car had stalled. The damn thing was working fine until they stopped at the top of the forest path to Toluca Lake. They had stopped to look around, and when they attempted to resaert the car, it wouldn't go.

The stuttering of the engine was starting to get to Stanley. He looked over at the doctors and shook his head. They had no idea what they were doing. They went to college, they had degrees and a high paying job, but the truth was that they were out of their depth here. He didn't know what it was that made him want to leave that place. Maybe it was the silence. It wasn't the silence he was used to, no, even the bird didn't sing here. There were no cicadas, no distant rumbling of passing traffic. It was as though they had drove through a barrier into another world. A world where noise was a sin. And the doctors were making a lot of it.

Sick of waiting, he bagan to walk towards the forest path. He paused at the top and looked down it. That's when he heard it. A noise, deep in the trees. It was unidentifiable, but a noise nonetheless. Without thinking, he ran. He ran until he was so far down the path that the sounds of the dead car's engine were completely drowned out. Silence. No noise, except the pounding of his own heart. No-what was that? He spun around. He could hear something, a sort of rustic creaking. Like a hinge in desperate need of some oil. And it was growing louder, and coming up behind him. Overcome with fear and panic, he ran. All of the way down the path, vaulting over a wooden fence at the bottom and stumbling over something hard.

* * *

Alex started to run. She had made it to the bottom of the forest path and found herself in a town. A town meant people, right? Then why was there nobody there? 

"Hello?" She screamed. Her voice echoed off the empty buildings. It was an eerie sound. "Is anybody there? Please, I was in an accident!" She spun around a few times, so sure that someone was watching her. It was making her feel uneasy. She decided to keep moving. It was just her luck to crash in a ghost town. Her first priority was finding clothes; it was warm but far too chilly to wear a hospital gown that opened down the back. She thanked the Lord that she was wearing underwear.

The feeling of unease grew with every step that she took. She could feel the fear building up inside of her, it was not a pleasant feeling. She ducked inside a boutique, praying that they had something in her size. If she needed more reassurance that the town was empty, this shopped gave it to her. The floor was strewn with cardboard and clothes, and it was obvious that the place hadn't been dusted in a while. She browsed through the racks and pulled out a pair of jeans and a plainochre tank top before changing in one of the cubicles. She wasn't taking any chances.On the way out she managed to find a mahogany-coloured jean jacket and black sneakers in her size. But being fully-clothed still didn't make her feel at ease. Something wasn't right.

As she exited the shop, she noticed a newspaper lying beside a bin and strolled over to pick it up. She paused to wipe away some muck that was obscuring some writing on the bin. 'The town of Silent Hill asks you to help keep its streets clean'.

"That name," she muttered. There was no-one around to hear her. "Silent Hill." She had heard that name before, but she couldn't remember where. She bent down to pick up the paper and read the date. _June 25th, 2006. _Alex's heard skipped a beat. June 25th...that was the day that Zach died. But 2006? It was only 2003. She shook her head in disbelief. She must have been in a coma. That was it. But the newspaper could have been old. For all she knew, it could be 2008.

Afeeling of hopelessness consumed her, and she dropped the paper only to wander aimlessly up the road.She was lost. She was all alone, lost anddisorientatedin a ghost town, with no sense of time. Her best bet was to finda car and hope that she could find the keys. The first car she came across was a police car, and the door was open.

Jogging over to it she whispered a silent prayer that it would run, but she could find no keys. She sat in the drivers seat for a moment to regain her composure when she noticed a radio on the passenger seat. It was lying on top of a newspaper. She gently picked up the radio and turned it over a few times in her hand, trying to work out how to use it. She found a power button and flicked it on, but was greeted only by silence. She pressed in a button on the side and spoke into it.

"Hello? Can anybody hear me?" The radio replied with a buzz of static then fell silent again. It was working, but there was no-one around to pick up a signal. Alex sighed and turned to look at the newspaper. This one was different to the one she picked up before. The date was _July 5th, 2006._ Three years to the day of Zach's funeral, and of her failed suicide attempt.A chill ran up and down her spine again, as though whatever was sending it wanted to make sure that she felt it this time. She tore her eyes away from the date and began to read the headlines.

**Orphanage closes as investigation continues.**

**Mayor resigns after 10 years.**

**Toluca Lake voted 'most beautiful landmark'.**

There was nothing unusual about it; they were just typical community-based stories. She placed the paper back onto the passenger seat and stood up, clipping the radio to her belt. It was obvious that whoever owned the car wasn't coming back. Before leaving, she searched the glove box but only found an empty gun and a pocket light. Empty or not, she didn't have use for a weapon so she left it where it was, but took the pocket light.

Gazing around, she realised that she couldn't see much for the thick fog that seemed to engulf the small town. But she could see enough of a figure that stumbled through the fog to make her sprint towards it, shouting.

* * *

Stanley sat up, massaging the back of his head. He must have knocked himself unconcious when he fell over...a headstone. He groaned as he realised the stupidity of it all. He was in a graveyard, no wonder he got scared; those places freaked him out. But now he was alone. He slowly but steadily got to his feet, ignoring the slight pain where his ankle had bashed into the broken slab. A heavy fog covered the graveyard, making it seem more eerie than it should have. Composing himself, Stanley looked back towards the path that he came from. He could hear voices now, obviously belonging to his stupid doctors. He would rather be alone than stuck with a group of bumbling idiots. He could take care of himself, but there was no way that he could take care of three incompetent buffoons as well. So he started to run. But he didn't get far until he doubled over in pain. It was as though someone had stuck a white-hot knife through each of his temples. He couldn't see and the pain was unbearable.

_A young girl stood in the graveyard. She must have only been in her early twenties. She wore a plain brown low-cut spaghetti-strapped dress under a dark denim jacket. On her feet she wore light-brown strappy sandals. They were designer, and Stanley knew this because he bough them for her.She turned around to look at him as he approached._

_"I knew you'd follow me," she said. She was brunette, like her mother. Stanley took after their father with his dark-blonde locks. Her hair was pulled back into a loose pony tail and clipped up, and her bangs fell carelessly across her face._

_"Did you?" The girl smiled._

_"Of course. You think it's your job to protect me. You heard me talking about this place in my sleep, didn't you? And when I disappeared you figured this was where I would be."_

Stanley blinked as the pain disappeared almost as suddenly as it had came. 'Not again', he thought. When he heard the voices behind him drawing closer, he pulled himself up again and ran out of the graveyard and into the town beyond.

* * *

**AN - When stuff is in italics it's a flashback or a vision.**


	3. My Worst Nightmare

"Hey!" Alex screamed. But whoever it was that she saw was gone. She slowly came to a halt and doubled over, breathing deeply.

"Shit."

She had no idea where she was; the fog covered everything. The person she had followed was probably standing in the shadows laughing at her, she thought. So she straightened herself up and turned right onto the sidewalk. That way she figured she had a better chance of finding an information post or tourist office. If she could just find a map...

She squinted as she looked around, taking a proper look at the town for the first time. It was a clean place but then again, there weren't any people around to mess it up. The detail that unnerved her the most was the fact that the shops seemed, well...modern. A couple even had neon signs, although tthe tubing had shattered, scattering glass on the pavement below. By pressing her nose up to the window of a nearby Travel Agents, she saw that it was empty. Papers were scatteredall over the floor and a pen dangled off the end of a tarnished desk, still chained to the surface.

"What the hell happened here?" She asked herself. It reminded of a book she had read once. Well, one of Zach's books. The enitre population ofa whole town had just vanished into thin air. She laughed for thinking this. That was just a story, fiction...it wasn't real. This _was_. The feeling of helplessness that over came Alexis at that point was overwhelming. Maybe this wasn't real. Maybe she had died and this was hell. Alex believed that hell was a place where your greatest fears became manifest, and her greatest fear was being alone.

As if someone heard her silent plea for company, a strange buzzing sound emanated from around her waist. Startled, she automatically dropped her hands to her side and realised that the radio had suddenly sprung to life. Her hand had barely moved to unclip it from her belt when she heard something out in the fog. She let her hand drop as the radio spurted more and more static out, the pitch rising every few seconds. But she didn't care about the radio anymore, because someone was out there, she could see them now. A leg appeared through the thick curtain offog, followed by another. Then, a torso, and...

Alex screamed.

* * *

Silent Hill had always been a happy resort town, Officer ThomasAnderson knew this.So when his search for the missing ambulance brought him to Silent Hill, he was glad. At least she would be safe. But something wasn't quite right this time. He admitted to himself that he hadn't visited Silent Hill for nigh on twenty years, but a place couldn't change in that long. Of course, there were the religious fanatics and the odd nutcase, but overall it was a peaceful lakeside resort.

He didn't know what it was that made him feel uneasy. Maybe it had something to do with the disappearance of Officer Bennett all those years ago. She, like so many other people, had made her way to Silent Hill and was never seen nor heard from again. But that was then and this was now.

The reason that he had postponed his vacation was because of another disappearance near Silent Hill. An ambulance was taking a comapatient from Brahams general hospital when the paramedics were no longer answering their radio. A driver who saw the ambulance in question had told police that he had seen it driving towards the Silent Hill turn-off. No doubt it was taking a short-cut. The police had first discovered a bashed-in car, it's driver dead, by the roadside and pulled over to take a closer look. They followed skid marks on the road to find the ambulance, which had been driven over the ledge. It was a sorry sight. All three paramedics were dead, but the patient was nowhere to be found.

"It must mean that she's still alive," Officer Anderson told the others. He stood beside the ambulance and looked around, desperate to find a sign of the missing woman.

It wasn't the fact that the ambulance had disappeared near Silent Hill that had caused Officer Anderson to drop his vacation plans and head on out. It was the patient that was being transferred. Her name was Alexis Sanderson, and she was twenty-six years old. Three years ago her husband passed away and she drove her car into a lake at his funeral. The doctors managed to save her, but she was in a deep coma. They were transferring her to a specialist hospital in the next town when they disappeared.

Of course, Officer Anderson knew Alexis. It must have been, what, twelve years? But he remembered it as if it was yesterday.

_"I want you to know that everything will be alright," he assured her. She was terrified, a young girl of just 14. Her mousy brown hair was tangled and torn from where she had pulled at it._

_"How can you say that?" She asked him. He couldn't understand, he was just a cop._

_"Because I am going to make sure that it will be. I will look after you." But the girl just laughed. She turned to look at him, her eyes bloodshot from the tears._

_"Promise?"_

_"Promise."_

* * *

Stanley let out a scream. He'd been yelling for what seemed like hours, but there was no answer. If there was anybody there, they weren't going to help him.

"I though this was supposed to be a **nice place**!" He yelled the last two words, causing them to echo eerily off the surrounding buildings. There was something strangely familiar about that place, he realised. He approached one of the dilapidated buildings and attempted to open the door. To his surprise, it opened straight away. It was a tourist information office, so there wasn't much to see. The only furniture in the small room were two chairs against the wall on the right, and a huge map of the town adorned the back wall. The map had an arrow pointing somewhere with the label 'You are here' inlarge, red letters hovering above it. He couldn't make out the street names, but the signs outside wereworn, so it wouldn't reallymake any difference. He began tracing a finger along the streets. He could make out the names of the buildings no problem.

"Church...Fire Station," he read aloud. "What? Ridgeview...The medical clinic?" He tried to think...why did that name mean something to him. Why? The harder he thought, the more painful it was. Something obviously didn't want him to remember. But whatever it was, it was failing.

_"Are you alright?" Stanley asked asDiana clung fearfully onto his arm._

_"Who the hell was that?" She panted, reluctantly reliquishing her borther's arm. Stanley didn't know any more than she did. He had actually preferred it when that place was empty. But that...person._

_They had wandered into Silent Hill, neither of them knowing what to look for when it became obvious that someone was following them. They heard the footsteps, and then a low, guttural growl. They never saw their stalker, but ther heard him picking up the pace as they sought refuge in the nearest building. It was a medical centre._

_"What the fuck happened to this place? Where is everyone?" Diana screamed. Stanley shusshed her and opene the door a fraction of an inch. Whoever had been following them was gone._

_"We're alright," he reassured her, but she was already terrified. Somehow she knew that things would only get worse._

* * *

Alexis screamed, paralysed by fear as the figure drew closer to her. The radio on her belt squealed and hissed manically with every step the thing took. It moved forward again and she could see it clearly now. It looked human, but it couldn't have been; it's anatomy defied every physical law. Its arms moved as if it wear tearing its own skin off, but she could not see its hands; the armswere held to its body by thick tendons which pulsatedas it moved and the hands were buried underneath its decaying flesh. Its head and shoulders twitched violently and every few seconds it leaned backwards and its shoulders seemed to dislocate itself. As it jerked forwards again, thin layers of its skin fell to the ground.

Alex backed up until she hit something cold. It was a tall, metal fence. It took hera few seconds to move, side-stepping away from the creature, holding onto the fence for support. She cried out in terror as it lurched slowly in her direction, screaming and moaning from a hole she could only assume was its mouth. Skin pulled tightly over this hole, and everytime it opened the skin ripped and the horrifying sound came out.

"Please..." Alex sobbed, moving faster. Her hands fumbled clumsily along the fence until they rested on a metal pole. It was the end of the fence, and the next section was collapsing. Without casting a look back at the horrifying creature, she squeezed herself between the two sections of fence and ran to a building on the opposite side, the creature screaming at her as she went.


	4. The Red Pyramid

**Forever**

**_"Evil draws men together" - Aristotle_**

Alex collapsed on the dusty floor. What the hell was that thing? She sobbed into the granite, trying to make sense of what she had seen. She couldn't get the images out of her head, and the horrifying noise invaded her senses. She could feel every terrifying note reverberating through her soul, destroying the human within her.

It took her a while to find her feet, and she smoothed back her hair. She looked around at the room she was in. A low, filthy desk stood in one corner and it was the only furniture in the room. The whole room was wooden, apart from the granite floor which was littered with old notices about scheduled funigations and power outages, the likes. On the far wall were several rows of mail boxes, the contents of many spread out on the ground below. It was obvious that this was an apartment building.

Uneasily, Alex glanced back towards the closed door before jogging towards the mouldy wooden staircase beside the desk. Each step groaned under her light weight, and she could feel the wood bending beneath her foot. It made her uneasy, but the only alternative was to face the creature outside.

* * *

Constance Gellar sighed as she lit a cigarette and took a long, slow drag from it. It was just their luck. 

"We should just walk back to Brahams," she told the others. "It's not that far." Dr. Goldwyn sighed as he exited the boutique.

"We are not going anywhere without Stanley," he insisted. Constance laughed.

"Terry, this place is a ghost town. The guy is free," she informed him. "He is no longer our responsibility. If he wanted us to escort him back home, he never would have ran off."

"Actually, until he is back home, he remains our reponsibility," Dr. Goldwyn insisted.

"Besides, Connie," said Matthew Raimes, "Aren't you even a little bit curious? About this place? As Stanley's hypnotherapist, you witnessed what he said first hand." Constance stubbed what was left of her cigarette out against a lamppost, taking a step towards Matthew once it had fell to the ground.

"Yes, I have witnessed his 'episodes' first hand," she told him, her voice trembling slightly as she spoke. "Which is exactly why I do not wish to remain in this place longer than I need to." Her intense gaze met Matthew's for a moment, and he saw the flicker of fear that passed across her brown eyes. She was a thirty-three year old woman, and Matthew knew that women of that age (and especially working within the mental health service) did not scare easily.

"If Stanley is on his own, he is in danger," Dr. Goldwyn informed them. "We need to find him. And I suggest that we start at the historical society. It is, after all, the place that he drew whilst under your hypnotherapy, Dr. Gellar.

Constance pulled herself together and nodded.

"Very well," she said, her voice stronger than it had been before. "But stay aware. There is something very wrong with this place."

* * *

"Mrs. Sanderson?" Officer Keel shouted. But there was no reply, save for his voice echoing throughout the empty streets. "Sir, I thought you said this was a tourist town?" 

Thomas Anderson walked by his side, his unbelieving eyes roaming over every empty shop. Of course it was a tourist town. He had visited not too long ago, and the streets were filled with happy, laughing couples and the ever-smiling locals. Now, the whole town was deserted. Cars remained in driveways, and shops remained open, but there was no life. Nobody to greet them as they made their way downCarroll Street.

Officer Anderson felt a chill creep throughought his body as they passed Brookhaven Hospital. Anderson used to be interested in local history, and knew that the hospital had been built in 1880 in response to the great plague that swept the town. Many people died in there. But it wasn't just the hospital. Silent Hill had a dark history, onewhich was laced with death and religious zealously.

"She will be here somewhere," he assured Keel. "She must be."

* * *

Stanley did not enter the medicalclinic. Nor did he go anywhere near it. In fact, he left that area of the town well alone, opting instead to the apartment blocks. Blue Creek and Woodside apartments were in the center of this part of Silent Hill, and were no doubt big and contained many places to hide. There, he would be able to lie low until his doctors decided to give up their search and leave. 

Stanley found the apartments with ease, thanks to a tourist map he had acquired from the Bureau. He was unnerved to see that this area of the town was as silent as the rest. But somehow, it didn't surprise him. He had been here before, he knew it, but he just didn't know what had happened then.

Katz street was very quiet. The apartment blocks were a little way down it, past the Lucky Jade restaurant. A tall, stell-link fence surrounded them, although it fell down at one point, allowing just enough room for a slender human to squeeze through. Stanley, whilst thin, was well built, so had to pull it back a little way to wriggle through.

He didn't notice the charred, bloody footprints that led up to the gate.

* * *

Alex climbed the stairs to the first floor of the Blue Creek apartment building. The building was dilapadated, although amazingly still intact. What was leftof a particularly hideous choise of wallpaper was peeling off the moist walls. The carpet squelched beneath Alex's feet, water pooling into her shoes. She looked up to see a gaping hole in the ceiling, granting her the unwanted view of someone's bathroom ceiling. Even that was stained with grime. How long had this place been deserted? 

She continued on down the hall, thefloor gradually becoming less fluid as she progressed. She tugged on the handles of the apartment doors as she passed, but most of them were locked. She banged her palms against the warm, damp wood and shouted through the doors.

"Hello?" She knew that it was futile. Even if the town was not deserted, who would live in a run-down dump like this? It was uninhabitable. And had a terrible roach infestation. She screamed as she looked down to see one of the infernal creatures scurrying across her shoe. She had never liked cockroaches. It was strange how they were the only sign of life in this town.

Carrying on, she ran her hand along the wall, dirt and dust clinging to her fingers. Eventually she found a door that opened, and cautiously made her way inside.

The first sound to greet her eyes wasthe static fuzz of the television. It was a small box, and a crudearial protruded from the top of it's wooden frame. In front of the T.V. sat an empty armchair. It was in seemingly perfect condition; no stuffing falling out of the cushions, or discolouration from the damp. A simple remote lay on its arm, pointed towards the T.V. Behind the T.V. was a sliding glass door, covered by a net curtain. With the way the T.V. was positioned, Alex doubted that anyone ever used this door. Along from the door was a cabinet, the glass infront of its empty display case scattered in pieces over the lower section.

Alex removed her pocket light from her jacket pocket and shone it on the display case. There was an imprint in the shape of a gun on the backboard. By the looks of it, it was a shotgun. Decorative, probably. But whatever it was, it was nowhere to be found. And the empty boxes on the surface of the drawer section signalled that the bullets were missing too. Alex thought back to the police car. Why didn't she take the damn gun?

Slipping the torch back into her pocket, she opened the top drawer of the cabinet. Nothing except dust. In the second drawer lay a few papers, including a tourist booklet. She had no use for that. In the botton drawer lay more empty boxes of shotgun shells, and...a handgun. Alex smiled as her fingers wrapped around the cold, steel handle. She had no idea what type of gun it was, as she had never used a real gun before. Only the stupid ones they had at carnivals. But she did know how to use it. She ejected the clip and saw that it was full. A quick rummage in the back of the draw produced three more clips which she slid into her back pocket. She kept the gun in hand.

_Alex smiled at the kind officer. His name was Anderson, apparantly._

_"Is that gun real?" she asked, pointing to the officer's firearm. Anderson smiled and removed it from its holster._

_"Yes it is," he replied, smiling. "Have you ever seen one before?" Alex shook her head. She was only fourteen for crying out loud!_

_"How do you use it?" She enquired curiously. Anderson showed her how to eject a clip._

_"These are the bullets," he told her. "As long as they stay dry, the gun will fire them." He replaced the clip and pointed to the side of the gun. "This here is a safety button. The gun won't fire if it's on. That's to stop us accidentally shooting ourselves in the leg when we holster the weapon." Alex laughed and placed a finger on the side of the handle of the gun. Anderson smiled at her. She was too young for this, but anything to occupy her was worth doing. "To fire, you aim at whatever you want to shoot and then squeeze...don't pull...the trigger."_

The apartment was very small. The kitchen was open, and there was a single bedrrom and tiny bathroom. Nothing of interest. She returned to the main room and placed a hand on the door handle when she heard a noise outside the room. It sounded like someone was attempting to open the doors previous to this room.

Alex backed up, walking into the armchair. The ominous sound drew closer. Whoever it was was only a few doors away now. Gripping the handle of her gun tightly, she ran over to the glass door and tugged on the handle. To her great surprise, the door slid open with ease, causing her to stumble slightly. She climbed onto the fire escape outside just as she heard the apartment door creak open. She didn't bother to close the door, but instead leapt to the fire escape of the opposite building. The flimsy metal scaffolding shook under her weight and she pulled herself through an open window.

She landed with a thud on the other side, the carpet barely breaking her fall. She crawled out of the way of the window.

"Hello?" A male voice shouted through the open door of the opposite building. "Is someone there?"

She heard footsteps on the fire escape and thena tremendous thud as the owner of the voice landed just outside the window. Terrified, Alex ran for the door, not wanting this...person...to find her. For all she knew, it could be another one of those creatures. She didn't stop running once she was out the door. Her footsteps echoed around the empty hallway. It was obvious that this was another apartment building. The layout was slightly different than the one she had just escaped, but the hallways were relatively easy to navigate.

There were no footsteps behind her, but another noise emanated from an unknown source. The sound was metallic, that was the only description she could think of for it. It sounded like machinery. The noise caused Alex to stop dead in her tracks, silent as the streets outside. The noise grew steadily louder, the metallic scraping irritating every nerve in Alexis' body. She clamped her hands over her ears and cried out in fear. As the noise grew, she realised that there was a steady beat to it, the tempo increasing as the volume grew. Then herradio began to hiss again, squealing and buzzing at her waist.

Without hesitating further, she ran. Her frantic footsteps were drowned out by the terrifying sound, and her breathing grew more erratic with every step she took. Her feet pounded against the dry, rough carpet. She didn't know where she was going. Anywhere but here, she told herself. Then she saw it...a red light emanating from the end of the hallway. It must be a way out, she thought, it must! The light grew as she drew closer to it, and she could make out a faint outline behind it. Her concentration momentarily evaporated, but that was all it took for her foot to catch on a loose piece of carpet and send her flying towards the light.

She remained on the floor fow a few seconds, breathing heavily. The light was gone. But there were metal bars infront of her, running vertically from ceiling to floor. She pushed herself up very carefully, reaching for her pocket light, which had been thrown aside with the force of her fall. She pointed the small light towards the bars, and it fell on a pair of boots. At least that's what she assumed they were. She realisedthat her radio was now hissing out of control. She was surprised that it was still working. Whoever those boots belonged to...they weren't human. She lifted the light, slowly standing as she did so. Just above where the 'boots' stopped, a strange garment began...or ended. Its edges were raggy and stained with what she hoped was simply dirt. The material had a leathery quality to it, and it was made up of several pieces of the same, leathery material crudely sewn together with what looked like hair. Alex did not want to see the rest of this monster, but curiosity and a morbid fascination overcame her. Besides, a metal gate seperated them both.

By slowly dragging the light further up she saw the skin of the creature. It was as pale as its clothing, and just as leathery. The arms were muscular, and veins throbbed on their surface. The hands gripped the handle of a large metal weapon.The weapon was rusting, and covered in the same brownish dye that covered the creature's clothes. She drew the light even further up and fell backwards, screaming. For the creature had no head. On its neck rested a giant, red, metal pyramid. It was rusting as much as the weapon was. The corners of the pyramid were sharp and again, stained with a brownish-red colouring. Huge bolts held the pyramis together, and there were widges along each side. No holes, though. There was no possible way that this thing could see or hear. Then why did Alex get the feeling that it was observing her.

She watched its chest rise and fall as its head dropped slightly. Alex realised for the first time that the strange noise had ceased. At that exact moment, a siren sounded in the distance, its deafining tone shattering the deadly silence. Then, Alex felt the carpet move beneath her hands. She looked down and screamed again. The whole floor appeared to be dissolving. Beneath the carpet lay a metal grate, and beneath that...Alex looked away. She never did have a head for heights. She slid the torch back into her pocjet and turned to look at the creature. Slowly, the metal bars began to dissolve, one by one. But the creature continued to point its hideous head in Alex's direction. She had seen enough. She grabbed onto the metal grate below her and violently pushed herself up, sprinting beforeshe was even upright. The whole world dissolved around her, wallpaper peeling off the walls, the plaster beneath disintegrating. Soon, the whole building consisted of metal grates and gangways. And the noise returned, coming from somewhere beneath her. And this time it was accompanied by thescraping sound of metal on metal. Alex spun around, still running backwards, and saw the pyramid-headed creature lurching towards her, heaving its giant knife behind it.Its red head remained fixed on her and is steadily made its way down her gangway.

Alex's feet shuffled slowly back, and then she felt the ground vanish. She was t the end of the path. But her foot had already overstepped the mark. Her arms flung wildly as she teetered on the dge. But there was nothing to hold onto. Nothing. Her remaining foot rocked precariously on the edge, before falling backwards off the metal, sending Alex plummeting into the unknown.

* * *

**AN - Gah, I'm not too sure about that chapter. I hope my description of Pyramid Head was satisfactory, lol. I know I've only got 3 reviews so far (thank you to those of you who have reviewed :)), but I checked my stats, so I know that people are reading this. Enjoy :)**

**Review...you know you want to :).**

**Disclaimer - I own nothing but the story and the characters. But I don't own some of the characters who will be coming in soon.**


	5. Fear

**Forever**

Alex blinked. Her surroundings were unfamiliar to her. The metal grates were all gone. Above her, the ceiling was damp and stained a yellowish-brown colour. Just below her feet, she could hear a strange clicking noise, but she dared not move. Blinking again, she reached a hand down to her waist, where she usually tucked the weapon into her jeans. But it was gone.

"Oh, you're awake." Alex froze. She did not recognise that voice. It was deep and smooth, yet there was something in it that she didn't quite understand. Like the way it shook when he spoke (this voice was definitely male), and the nervous little laugh he gave at the end. It did not sound evil by any means, but it was the fear within that shook Alex.

She pressed her hands to whatever she was lying on and felt it buckle slightly. A quick glance down informed her that she was lying on an old, soiled mattress.

"Are you alright?" She snapped her eyes up to look at the speaker. He was a man in his mid-twenties with dark blonde hair. His piercing blue eyes observed her as she observed him. She took in every detail from his clean-shaven face and strong jawline to the greying strait-jacket that he wore, the sleeves cut off at the wrists.

"Who are you?" She demanded, eyeing his attire suspiciously. Her hand wandered down the side of the mattress to find some sort of weapon.

"My name is Stanley," he told her. She realised then that the clicking noise had come from the knife that he was using to clean dirt from beneath his fingernails with. "I heard a noise after..." He paused and looked away from Alex. She could have sworn that she saw him blush.

Stanley was too embarrassed to admit what he had seen. For all he knew, it could have just been another one of his episodes. It bore great resemblance to them.

"I heard a noise," he said eventually. "So I came rushing in here and found you lying on that dirty old mattress. That was about half an hour ago."

Alex continued to stare at him, and it unnerved Stanley.

"Don't look at me like that," he said, his voice remaining gentle.

"Like what?" Alex said. Stanley shoved his knife down the side of one of his boots.

"Like I'm crazy. Because I'm not." Alex raised her eyebrows.

"Really? Because your fashion sense tells me otherwise."

Stanley paused to take in his attire and laughed once he realised howsuspicious he must have looked.

"Alright, maybe I was crazy once," he laughed. "Maybe I still am, but you don't have to look at me like I'm a time bomb."

Alex observed him once again with great interest. _'Maybe this town isn't so dead after all'_, she thought.

"I'm sorry," she apologised, laughing at herself. "I just...I must have been knocked out and had a nightmare. But it seemed so...real...so terrifying." She lifted her gaze to look him in the eyes and laughed even harder. "I probably sound crazy now, right?"

Stanley replied by smiling at her and assured her that she wasn't.

"I don't know where I am, really," she admitted. "I-All I can remember is water...lots of it...then I woke up in the back of a crashed ambulance."

"Silent Hill," Stanley muttered.

"I'm sorry?"

"You are in Silent Hill." Stanley smiled at her and reached for something on the floor beside him. "It's a resort town...at least it's supposed to be. I was discharged from the psychiatric hospital in Brahams and they were driving me back home but foolishly decided to stop here first."

Suddenly, Stanley had Alex's full attention.

"You mean there's...there's _more_ of you?"

Stanley laughed at her.

"Yeah, but I ran away from them...they were too busy fussing over the car," he explained. "They are useless anyway."

Alex pushed herself further back on the matress as Stanley moved his wandering hand into her line of vision and she saw his large hands wrapped around a small gun. He looked up at her then tossed the gun onto the matress.

"I think that's yours," he said. Alex reached for it and wrapped her fingers around the handle, enjoying the comfort that the feel of the cold metal on her skin brought.

"Now," Stanley said, standing up, "I think we should go before...well before something bad happens."

He offered Alex a hand and she gladly took it, heaving herself to her feet. For the first few seconds, she felt unsteady and a wave of nausea rose up through her body, but it soon settled.

Together they left the room and found that they were still in the apartment building. Alex gripped Stanley's hand tightly and together they searched for a way out.

* * *

Constance Gellar angrily crumpled up the empty cigarette packet and threw it to the ground in frustration. She needed a smoke. Bad. For what seemed like hours, they had been walking around in circles. There was no sign of Stanley, or any other form of life in the quiet town of Silent Hill. 

"Matthew," she said, her voice shaking slightly from the lack of nicotine. "Why are we here? It is obvious that he has ran off, so why can't we go back? If the car is still out we could always flag down a ride."

Matthewignored her and turned to Dr. Goldwyn.

"He can't have gone far," he said. "Connie, what places did he mention when you were treating him?"

Constance impatiently tapped her foot as she attempted to remember exactly what Stanley had said.

"The church!" She said, suddenly. "He said that he found his sister in the church. Maybe he went back there."

All three doctors turned towards the steeple they could see in the distance. Fog swirled ominously around it, making it look eerie in the dim afternoon light.

"Are...are you sure?" Asked Dr. Goldwyn.

"Do you have a better idea?"

* * *

"Thomas!" Officer Anderson turned towards his partner to see him crouching on the ground beside a tall steel-link fence. "Take a look at this." 

Thomas ran towards the fence and stopped dead in his tracks when his eyes fell upon what had caught Officer Keel's attention.

There on the pavement, leading up to the fence, were several footprints. But these footprints were not normal. They did not consist of mud or soot. They looked as though they were made up entirely of blood. In the centre of these footprints, and on the surrounding ground lay chunks of what looked like charred flesh.

"This is impossible," Officer Keel observed, holding a piece of the twisted flesh in his gloved hand. "This skin is warm, but it has started to decay. This flesh was probably torn from the body an hour ago, but the stage of decomposition it's at suggests that it is older than that...months older."

"How is that possible?" Thomas asked. Officer Keel shook his head.

"I have no idea," he admitted. "It's impossible. Also, where is the body? There are no footprints on the other side of the fence, and if a body was dragged away, there would be marks on the pavement. I can't think of a logical explanation for this."

Thomas swallowed hard. He assumed that they were dating with a psychopathic killer. A psychopathic kilelr who was on teh lose in the same town as Alexis.

"We have to pick up the pace," he told his partner. "Be alert and look for anything out of the ordinary. The sooner we find Alexis, the better."

Officer Keel dropped the flesh and stood up. He shivered slightly as a cold breeze passed them.

"Should we call for backup?" He asked. Officer Thomas shook his head. For some reaon, he didn't think that it would help.

* * *

Matthew pushed the church door open quietly. It was empty inside, though he had the feeling that they were being watched. 

He stepped inside and held the door open to allow his fellow doctors in.

"Oh, my God!" Constance screamed and jumped about a foot to her left. "Oh, my god! Oh, my God!"

The two male doctors looked down and they, too, jumped back. Huge droplets of blood spattered the dusty floorboards. A lot of the blood looked dry, but most of it was still wet and glistened in the light.

"Oh, my God!" Constance screamed for the last time. "Do you...do you think that is his sister's...?" Mathew bent down and placed a finger in the blood.

"It's cold," he said. "It probably is, but...how come it all hasn't dried up?" He pulled himsef to his feet and followed the droplets to the altar. Everything to do with the church had been broken and scattered around, and there were rust marks and strange fotoprints in blood all over the altar. But that wasn't it. In the middle of all of the rust and footprints was a pool of blood. The edges of the pool had dried slightly and become crusty, but other than that, the blood looked as though it had just been spilt.

"Maybe...maybe he was telling the truth, then?" Suggested Constance, hoping that one of the other doctors would tell her that it was not true. What Stanley had told her while under hypnosis was...it was too terrifying to accept. She thought that his description of his sister's death was an elaborate lie, aproduct of his troubled imagination.

"Stay here," Matthew instructed them. "I will look around." Constamce didn't need to be told.

Matthew went through a door to the left of the altar. It led to a walkway which had many doors on one wall. The old stone surrounding him was covered in moss and insects. Matthew had never liked insects. They made his skin crawl. He noted that this town had a similar effect on him.

He opened one of the door and stepped into the room beyond, closing the door quietly behind him. Then he heard a noise. It sounded like a low sobbing and it was coming from somehwere behind him. Slowly, he turned to face the source of the noise and saw someone with their back to him. They wore a tattered straight jacket which was buckled at the back, though one of their arms had pulled free of the thick maerial.

"Hello?" He said. "Are...are you alright?"

Suddenly, the sobbing ceased. The figure slowly turned to face Matther and when it's face was revealed, Matthew shrunk back against the door.

The figure moved into the light and Dr. Raimes could see that it was not human. Maybe it had been, once, but it no longer was. One of its eyes was shut and the other was black with streaks of red across it. Its skin was blue, as though it had been decomposing for at least a year. Its lips were pink and chapped and everytie they parted, something thick and black dripped from its mouth. It held out a hand towards Matthew and he could see that the same, black, lumpy, treacle-like substance glooped out of a cut onthe creature'swrist, spilling out onto the palm of its hands and squelching through its fingers and onto the floor. Then it made a noise. To Matthew it sounded like it was a strangled cry for help, but he couldn't have been sure.

"Oh, God!" Matthew gulped as the creature limped towards him. "Get away from me!" He frantically tried to open the door, but for some reason, it had locked itself. "What do you want?"

The creaure was now facing him and it placed its decaying hand on Matthew's face. Then it straightened its head and looked him in the eyes. It opened its mouth and the black subsance fell onto its decomposing chest. Then, something came out of its mouth and moved towards Matthew so fast that he didn't know what had hit him. He didn't even realise anything _had _hit him until he felt his own blood trickling thickly down the side of his face. His eyes rolled into the back of his head as he slowly felt the pain creeping up on him. He heard something hit the ground and the flow of blood increased, until it was in his eyes and all he could see was red. The last thing he felt before he fell was something sharp ripping through his throat. He was dead before he hit the ground.

* * *

**AN - Methinks it's time to put the rating up. New characters (well, old if youhave played the games) are coming soon. Hope you enjoyed this :). I apologise in advance for any mistakes in this chapter...I'm typing thi sup on my laptop which has a very awkward keyboard on it.**

**Until next time...**

**Disclaimer - I don't own Silent Hill or the characters associated with it.**


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